


a kiss away from reality

by pugglemuggle



Series: Pugglemuggle's SASO 2017 Fills [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (because i have a brand okay), Alternate Universe - Sense8 (TV) Fusion, Banter, Delivery Person Nishinoya Yuu, Friends to Lovers, Inspired By Sense8, Kissing, M/M, Meet-Awkward, Mind Meld, POV Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Tanaka says "fuck" a lot, Telepathic Bond, Telepathic Kissing, Waiter Tanaka Ryuunosuke, mentions of recreational marijuana, other characters are mentioned via vague epithets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 23:57:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16459529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pugglemuggle/pseuds/pugglemuggle
Summary: Tanaka and Noya live on opposite sides of the world, but their telepathic connection brings them together. With Noya always just a thought away, Tanaka never feels alone.(Or, Tanaka and Noya are Sensates, and maybe also soulmates. A TanaNoya Sense8 AU.)





	a kiss away from reality

**Author's Note:**

> From savetanaka's prompt during SASO 2017:
> 
>  **Prompt:** Sense8 AU. Tanaka and Nishinoya (or Bokuto and Kuroo - or both!) live on opposite sides of the world but meet telepathically one day. They are both busy with their own lives, and have never met IRL but are inexplicably drawn to each other when they 'visit' each other in their minds. Will they ever get the chance to meet? (I'm thinking either Kala x Wolfgang or maybe Riley x Will?). If you haven't watched Sense8, here is some useful info.
> 
> This doesn't quite get to the "will they ever meet?" part of the prompt, but it is certainly a Sense8 AU! I've done a few minor edits since it was first posted, but the original can be found [here](https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21522.html?thread=9955858#cmt9955858).

When Ryuu first sees the dude with the partly bleached hair standing in his living room, he wonders if he’s a lot more stoned than he originally thought.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asks, because, okay, there’s a stranger in his living room and Ryuu isn’t wearing any pants. This is not an everyday occurrence.

“Uh,” the guy says. To his credit, he looks just as confused as Ryuu is. “I’m...Noya? Nishinoya Yuu? Where...who the fuck are _you_?”

This is probably just some big misunderstanding, Ryuu thinks. They’ll probably talk it over, realize this guy just had the wrong address or something, and then they could both get on with their lives. Until then, though, this whole situation is really killing his buzz.

“I’m Tanaka Ryuunosuke,” Ryuu says. “And this is my crib. Apartment. Where I live. Are you...lost?”

“Apartment?” the dude repeats. His eyes are going a little bug-eyed. “But...I was just...”

And then— _what the fuck_. What the _fuck_. Suddenly, Ryuu isn’t in his apartment anymore; the walls disappear in the blink of an eye and the air feels different and the furniture is different and is that sunlight? It’s three in fucking morning and there’s sunlight streaming through the window of wherever the fuck this is like it’s mid-fucking-afternoon.

“What the hell was in that weed?” Ryuu wonders out loud as he looks around the new room. The guy with the partly bleached hair—Noya—is still here.

“I dunno, man,” Noya says. “But, uh, this is my flat. It’s not much, but, ya know, rent in Tokyo is—”

“Tokyo?” Ryuu interrupts. “We’re in _Tokyo_?”

“Yeah,” Noya says. “...Where are you?”

“I’m in New York!”

“ _What?”_

“Yeah, man!”

“Then how—”

“I have no fuckin’ clue,” Ryuu says. “Either I’m stoned out of my mind, or this is some weird psychic shit here, dude.”

“Well, I’m sober,” Noya says. “So I’m thinking it’s the second thing.”

“Fuck,” Ryuu says.

“Fuck,” Noya agrees.

It’s gonna be a while before he’s used to this.

 

∞

 

He starts seeing Noya everywhere after that.

Once, maybe twice a day, he’ll accidentally find himself wandering into Noya’s life. Noya’s a delivery guy for a to-go restaurant in the middle of Toyko. He works all day on a scooter, zooming past stopped traffic and weaving in and out of narrow alleys. Seeing the city through Noya’s eyes...it’s fucking insane. Ryuu had thought New York was chaotic, but it can’t hold a candle to Tokyo.

When they’re not visiting each other, Ryuu still finds himself connected to Noya, even in small ways. It becomes his new normal. He’s on his break after a four-hour shift at the restaurant, and suddenly he hears Noya singing in the shower like he’s standing in there with him. He feels invisible rain on his skin during his walk home, tastes cigarette smoke instead of toothpaste, and falls asleep amidst the faint blare of car horns from two different continents. The next morning, he’s eating breakfast and the Mini Wheats stop tasting like Mini Wheats and start tasting like _gyoza_ , which he’s pretty sure he hasn’t eaten in months. “You sneaking bites from the deliveries?” Ryuu asks the empty air, knowing Noya will hear him. On the other side of the world, Noya gives an indignant squawk as he shoves another potsticker into his mouth and comes to a stop at an intersection.

“The guy gave me a fake address,” Noya says. “If they don’t pay, it’s mine. Lay off, man.”

“Alright, alright,” Ryuu relents, grinning in a way that probably looks stupid. “I’m just saying, cereal and gyoza is a weird-ass taste combo.”

Noya sighs. “Tell me about it.”

 

∞

 

The others start showing up, in time: a carrot-haired pilot, an Olympic volleyball setter, a hipster-looking bookseller, a navy captain, a paleontologist, a law firm manager. They’re a little overwhelming sometimes, but life is never boring. They’re a team. Still, no matter how close he gets to the others, it’s never quite the same as it is with Noya. He feels Noya everywhere, swears he can feel him under his skin sometimes, feel his breath when he exhales. It’s like Noya’s always just a step behind him. If he turned to look, he’d see him there—his bleached fringe, his excited eyes, his almost perpetual grin. It’s nice. He never feels alone.

He finds himself having near-constant conversations with Noya during the times when they’re both awake. It gets to the point where he feels self-conscious talking to himself on the subway, so he buys himself a Bluetooth earpiece so he can pretend he’s on the phone. Noya makes fun of him for it for a week, but Ryuu keeps using it anyway. It’s worth it, to get to keep talking to the person who is quickly becoming his best friend. Noya has weaved himself into Ryuu’s life so completely, so devastatingly, that Ryuu wonders sometimes what would happen if they ever had to pull out the threads.

 

∞

 

“Hey, Ryuu?” Noya asks one night after Ryuu gets home from work. Noya’s just gotten out of the shower, his day only just beginning, but Ryuu worked an extra shift at the restaurant and he’s beat.

“What’s up?” Ryuu asks. He turns a mental corner and in an instant he’s standing in Noya’s apartment, watching Noya towel his hair.

“I was thinking...” Noya says. He throws the towel onto the nearby sofa. “You know how when I tap you or something—” He pats Ryuu’s shoulder for emphasis. “—you can feel it?”

“Yeah?” Ryuu says. Noya is standing close to him, his skin pink from the shower. There are droplets still clinging to his skin and if Ryuu thinks about them, he can feel the sensation of the water trickling down his shoulder blades like they’re his own.

“I was wondering—how does that work? Since you’re not actually here,” Noya says. “Like, what are the limits of it? You know?”

Ryuu swallows. “Yeah, dude. I think I get what you’re saying.”

There are no secrets between them. There can’t be, not when they spend their lives in each other’s heads. When Ryuu’s eyes slip down to look at Noya’s lips, his gaze does not go unnoticed.

“Sorry,” Ryuu apologizes. “I’m just—you’re...you know.”

“No, no, it’s fine. It’s fine,” Noya says. There’s a heavy pause, and then Noya bites his lip, sinks his teeth a little into the skin and Ryuu couldn’t look anywhere else if he tried. They’re on opposite sides of the world, but Ryuu swears to god that Noya has never felt so close.

“Um,” Ryuu croaks. “Do you...? Um.”

“Yeah,” Noya says, and _thank fucking god_ that Noya gets him enough to translate that nonsense into something that makes sense. Noya takes another step towards him, and his hair brushes Ryuu’s chin when he looks up and murmurs, “Go ahead.”

And so Ryuu leans down and kisses him.

It’s intense— _god_ is it intense. He feels Noya’s lips against his own and he feels his own lips against Noya’s and he feels it echoed again and again and again, amplified until all he can think is _Noya_ and _more_. Noya kisses him back with equal fervor, like he’s hungry for it. His tongue licks over Ryuu’s bottom lip and tugs it between his teeth, just like he did to his own bottom lip a moment before. Ryuu makes a noise.

He’s not sure how long they’ve been kissing when Noya suddenly pulls back and whips around to look at the clock. “Shit!” he says. “I’m gonna be late to work. Fuck.”

“You could call in sick...” Ryuu suggests halfheartedly. Noya squints, seeming to seriously consider it, and then shakes his head.

“Nah, I can’t. I need my sick days for ski trips,” he says. “But—uh. We, should, you know. We should keep doing this.”

“Yeah,” Ryuu agrees. “Yeah, I’d—yeah.”

“Cool,” Noya grins, and Ryuu’s heart does a dumb thing in his chest when he sees Noya smile like that. Fuck, he’s completely gone for Noya. How did he not realize that sooner? “I’ll see you tonight?”

“Tomorrow morning, you mean,” Ryuu says.

“Yeah, sure, tomorrow morning,” Noya laughs. “We’ll pick this up then.”

“Alright,” Ryuu says. “Sounds like a promise.”

He lies awake in bed with that promise buzzing in his brain like his own special kind of caffeine. Morning can’t come soon enough. He can’t fucking wait.


End file.
